It was supposed to be one of the highlights of a full night of high school basketball.

The undefeated El Dorado Wildcats came into the Roundhouse Friday night to face a McPherson High boys basketball team that was coming off a shaky win against Rose Hill Tuesday night in what was expected to be an athletic game between the two schools.

The Bullpups had other ideas, however, putting the buzzsaw to El Dorado in an 18-7 second quarter and never looked back on the way to a 65-40 AVCTL victory.

“I'll be honest, I was worried,” MHS coach Kurt Kinnamon admitted after the win. “I was as mad at a team as I'd ever been (Thursday) night. (The varsity) played our junior varsity and went 0-for-10 and I thought 'holy cow, we're really setting ourselves up to get really walloped,' but I guess they were just playing possum.”

The two teams went back and forth in first quarter, with McPherson able to use a brief run at the end of the period to take a 19-14 lead at the buzzer.

The second quarter was huge for McPherson, as the Bullpups opened up the throttle all the way with the 18-7 drubbing that left El Dorado getting more and more frustrated.

That frustration culminated in a foul on Keaton Sorenson by the Wildcat's John Scott, who immediately received a technical foul in the aftermath in an altercation under the rim with Kyler Kinnamon.

Sorenson and Kinnamon both received two free throws in the incident, making all four. Marcus Houghton would pick up the following in-bound and put up a beautiful floater in the lane.

McPherson was clutch on the foul line in the first half, shooting 70.6 percent on 12-of-17 shooting.

The second quarter rattled the Wildcats' confidence, as the Pups kept pouring it on in the second half, outscoring El Dorado 14-10 and 14-9 in the third and fourth quarters, respectively.

“I though we played very well tonight,” coach Kinnamon said. “They were having some troubles keeping us in front of them, allowing us to break it down and get some easy baskets.”

The Pups (8-1) shot 61.1 percent from the field in the second half and went 23-for-44 on the game, while holding El Dorado (7-1) to only 10-of-25 shooting from the field. McPherson only managed three from deep in the game, two of which coming from Peter Horton.

MHS went 16-of-23 from the foul line Friday night; El Dorado went 14-of-20.

For the Bullpups, Kyler Kinnamon had 21 points on 7-for-13 shooting, while Marcus Houghton and Keaton Sorenson both had 16. El Dorado was led by Travis House's 22, which included a first quarter dunk.

The Pups are now off until Thursday, where they will open up the 49th McPherson Invitational against Lawrence Free State. Tipoff from the Roundhouse Thursday is at 8:15 p.m.